Obama's Scandals Reveal the True Face of Government

Power and force are the name of the game.

The Obama administration has gotten itself into a fix between its contradictory stories about the Benghazi incident, reports of the IRS targeting conservative groups, and the Justice Department's grabbing of phone records from AP reporters. There are few things more fun to watch than arrogant political leaders—folks who spend their lives bossing everyone around—getting a comeuppance.

My favorite take wasn't from any serious commentator but from comedian Jon Stewart, who noticed that the president routinely claims ignorance about embarrassing events by saying that he learned of them while watching the news: "I wouldn't be surprised if President Obama learned Osama bin Laden had been killed when he saw himself announcing it on television."

I take a bipartisan approach to Washington, DC's political scandals and find myself savoring them all, regardless of the party that is in control of the White House. Any sane person would conclude that all administrations and bureaucracies essentially are corrupt given that they thrive on the exertion of power of other people. We know about the corrupting influence of power, and DC has become like ancient Rome that way. It's a magnet for those seeking favor, money, or a big title administering some pointless program.

I visited DC last week and was astounded at the booming economy, the endless new construction, the astronomical prices, and garish displays of wealth everywhere—not to mention the haughty attitudes of every pissant assistant to the whatever. That's what Other People's Money buys you. When Ronald Reagan talked about the Shining City on the Hill he was speaking metaphorically about America, but the new shining city is DC—funded on the backs of all those Americans who blithely vote for people who promise to solve their problems.

That's the main lesson from this latest mess: the federal government is an untamable beast. These superficial scandals are nothing compared to the things we will never learn—i.e., the way the CIA conducts its business overseas.

Still, there are so many things to savor as President Obama circles the drain. Obama has always exuded an intellectual arrogance. Yet if he's so smart, why would his Justice Department target reporters? The national media has fawned over the president, but the quickest way to end that love affair is to go after their personal records.

Unfortunately, many people insist on seeing every scandal in terms of partisanship. Conservatives are aghast, as they should be, at the thought of an IRS auditing groups based on their political views. That is eerily totalitarian. But where would they have been had a Republican administration done the same thing to liberal critics? I doubt the activist groups would be sending out the alarmist direct-mail pieces if the latest Bush were still president.

The best news from the ongoing drama is that people on the left and right see problems here. Let's use that as a foundation for a renewed civil-liberties coalition that understands that there are many bright red lines in which the government—regardless of who nominally is at the head of it—does not cross. That's easier to do when one realizes that our supposedly limited government is so limitless in its size, power, and taxing ability that no president can control it.

When pundits complain about excess partisanship, what they usually are really saying is they are tired of all the political fighting. Yet political fighting is good—it's a sign of differences of opinion and assures that important issues get debated, however clumsily, in the public.

In Sacramento, California, the Republican Party has imploded and there is little worry about partisanship. But the state's Democratic Party is now engaged in policies so secretive that even liberal-oriented pundits are getting concerned. No one has the power to say no, so the Democrats are ramming through every manner of dangerous bill.

The new health-exchange law shields most contracts under a veil of secrecy so that public money can be dispensed to friends and cronies without the public learning about where it is going. Democratic leaders have embraced a gut-and-amend frenzy—proposing dozens of bills with placeholder language that will be stripped away at the last minute with new and completely different language inserted. This circumvents normal debate and oversight.

This is not a Democratic problem per se, but a government problem. And local governments are arguably even more dangerous to our liberties. In Bakersfield recently, after Kern County sheriff's deputies beat to death a young father (after being called to the scene for a minor incident—public drunkenness), they grabbed the cellphones of bystanders who were recording the incident. That's right out of a police state.

Government is about power and force. Many people charged with power over others will abuse it. That's human nature. Unfortunately, the nation's founding ideals—limited, accountable government, with separated powers and checks and balances—have been fading away. Government is so big that even the president and the attorney general claim they have no idea what their departments are doing. I almost believe them.

We need to rebuild a coalition of civil libertarians of the left and right who agree to some basics, on some bright red lines that no government should cross. We need to provide a unified, bipartisan front on behalf of individual liberties and against any official from any party who would trample them. Maybe we can learn that constructive lesson from the administration's unreconstructed behavior.

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I was just watching MSNBC and David Corn and another guest were a bit dismissive about the IRS scandal. They seemed to be overly reliant on the IRS’s official excuse (namely that this was a response to a flood of applications in the wake of Citizens United), and saying that while this is unfortunate, the IRS wasn’t technically doing anything wrong.

But, my questions are “Didn’t we just learn a few days ago that the the ‘flood of applications’ excuse has a pretty big hole in it, considering that data seems to indicate that the political targeting began during a relative lull in application submissions?” and “With that in mind, isn’t anyone going to call the David Corns of the world out on this, seeing as it seems like kinda hackish to shoehorn your anger of Citizens United into a lame excuse for the IRS’s awful misbehavior?”

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CNN has decided to forego coverage of anything important until the Jodi Arias case is wrapped up, I’ve already been watching FoxNews for several days, and so I decided to look at MSNBC to see if anyone is ready to admit outrage over the IRS scandal.

Have you seen how white people vote? They are holding us back from a Marxist utopia of post scarcity where there would be no need for the IRS because there would be no need for money. Like, Cuba, for instance.

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But the bad things Matthews is saying, such as Obama is disengaged, unaware, disinterested, etc., are designed to isolate Obama from responsibility for any of the scandals. (He just didn’t know what was going on!)

Well, to be fair to progressives, this is pretty much all due to Citizen’s United. Before that, Democrats and establishment Republicans could use campaign finance law and the FEC to silence, harass, impede, or intimidate small groups of conservatives, libertarians, and dissident liberals. SCOTUS fucked all that up, so they had to take a chance and go through the IRS instead.

And now this IG report (unfortunately timed to come out when the press is briefly giving a shit about government abuses due to being fucked over themselves) has landed like a live grenade in DC, and everyone from the White House to the civil service to the Democrats in Congress are falling over each other trying to get clear of the blast.

No it’s not about Citizens United, it’s about Democrats in the IRS abusing their power to suppress conservative speech.

Democrats trying to explain away the IRS actions, should first explain why the IRS itself said the activity was illegal. What’s amazing is that someone in the IRS found out about it, and put a stop to it. They’ve probably been demoted like Gregory Hicks.

When people in the IRS go to jail for this, then I’ll believe Obama didn’t make it happen. In the meantime, look who’s paying for the IRS employee legal bills. If it’s rich Democrats, then Obama made it happen. If it’s the IRS employees paying for their own defense, then they are responsible assuming they don’t squeal regarding from who their orders came.

Obama hasn’t held anyone accountable for anything. Even the IRS commissioner who resigned was going to quit next month anyway. Looks like he had already planned an exit after the damage was done.

Let me be clear…. it’s unfortunate that so many young Americans don’t yet put their full trust in the institutions of government. But make no mistake, I’ve got the Education Department working on that.

I’ve identified the problem. The Department of Education is too busy Educating to handle a task of this magnitude. We need an entirely new department.

Perhaps we’ll call it the Re-Education Department. This new department, RED for short, can sponsor nature camps all over America where those most in need of governmental assistance can receive personalized instruction from Top men. There are a lot of Tea Partiers out there in need of governmental assistance and this Administration would like to assist them.

Actually if you were to map them out on the old D&D alignment charts Sith would be Lawful Evil and Jedi would be Lawful Neutral with a few specific members of the order bordering on Lawful or Neutral Good

If you think about it, a Q/Borg hybrid is the leftoid ideal derived from the mind-body dichotomy and collectivist theory.

A mind which flits to the end of the universe and beyond while manipulating space, time and matter with metaphysical impunity (which is the premise of rationalists); a body which belongs to the hive, and a mind which is soon subordinated to that hive.

Sith? Ehhh, I dunno if I’d call them lawful evil. Most are evil, yes, but the Sith Code has a line specifically stating that the Force is a tool to “free” people from their chains. They value their own freedom without necessarily valuing the freedom of others, kind of like libertarians without a NAP to prevent unprovoked aggression.

And that opens up a can of worms. Are deontological libertarians lawful because they adhere to a specific ethical code or chaotic because they want to maximize freedom?

Because, in practice, a “liberaltarian” amounts to nothing more than a liberal willing to allow people to do things that he or she doesn’t object to as a liberal. It was a terrific strategy for liberals. Not so much for libertarians.

“But where would they have been had a Republican administration done the same thing to liberal critics?”

From where I’m standing, the modern term “progressive” can all but be defined as the idea that the government should sacrifice people’s rights whenever doing so is in society’s best interest. And what we’ve seen in terms of the IRS scandal is basically in line with that principle–if you assume discriminating against Tea Party types is in the best interests of society.

I do not recall having seen a conservative question the very existence of our rights, but I often see progressives argue that our rights ONLY exist in so far as the government approves of them.

So, honestly, I think conservatives are better about this kind of thing. I think more conservatives would be jumping on a hypothetical Republican president for doing the same thing than there are people on the left jumping on Obama’s case right now.

I think average conservatives (and I’m talking about the conservative constituency, here, not the politicians) are more sensitive to integrity, and it looks to me like the progressive constituency generally thinks integrity is for idiots and rednecks.

there is a huge, relatively complacent majority in this country. And by complacent I mean that they don’t bother to investigate their own biases. I consider them passive-progressive. They accept at face value that the government is a benevolent steward of their best interests and that “corporations” are bad.

I think it’s because liberals (especially the very liberal) don’t understand conservatives, and as a result attribute evil motives to them (given the incomplete and often wrong vision in their heads, this is the only reason that makes sense to them).

And when you’re fighting against evil, it’s better to have a corrupt Democrat in office than an evil Republican. So lying and cheating are OK with liberals in their fight against “evil”. The ends are more important than the means when fighting evil.

You mean the GOP hasn’t tied it to White House yet. It took 6 months for some of the truth to come out on Benghazi.

I think the Republicans learned that they get more mileage out of letting the administration cover up for Obama, then exposing his lies after he’s repeated them many times. Then after the Democrats come up with new excuses/spin, then they’ll provide evidence those are lies too. It’s kind of fun to watch. Liars should be exposed, along with those abusing their government power.

I don’t think liberty loving individuals will start to reach the masses with a renewed push for liberty until they are all feeling the true weight of the government’s force. Why does the average citizen care if the IRS is targeting Tea Party groups? Do Iowans care that some guy was beaten to death in Bakersfield CA? If they don’t notice all their emails and texts are being collected do they care? If they get a portion of the wealth sharing do they shed tears for entrepenuers? The answer is no they don’t. Not until they start loading people into cattle cars will most people give a shit.

The other day I asked a progressive acquantaince of mine where he got his views from and his response was, “it’s just how I feel.” He didn’t get it from a book, a magazine, or even MSNBC, it’s just emotional. Apathy cover’s the 50 states like a blanket. Shew, rant complete.

Not until they start loading people into cattle cars will most people give a shit.

And even then most people won’t give a shit until they are being loaded into cattle cars. The average German citizen really didn’t give a shit about jews being rounded up.

I don’t buy the excuse that some people make for them that “they didn’t know.” You don’t hide an operation as large as the final solution without at least some rumors getting out. In reality “they didn’t know” because they didn’t want to know. They couldn’t bring themselves to believe that their own government was capable of something like that. People today are no different.

I think this is the truly scary thing about the encroachment of tyranny. If these exact same things were happening in someone else’s country, the populace would think it is terrible that a government could do such things to it’s people. But because it’s happening here, they repress and deny. “no, no, MY government is a bastion of good and it is just. MY government wouldn’t do these things”

The real problem is that America’s intellectual leadership has been getting Americans ready for a Hitler for the past hundred years, rotting society and culture from the inside-out under such glowing terms as “progressivism” and “social justice”.

“The best news from the ongoing drama is that people on the left and right see problems here.”

I have been screaming about the following–right here on this website–since it first became clear that the Benghazi attack wasn’t a reaction to that YouTube video:

Barack Obama exploited bigotry against Muslims just to deflect criticism away from himself with just a few weeks left before the election.

When I see someone write that people on the left see problems here, too, I’m not sure that’s true–because I haven’t seen anyone on the left chastise Obama yet for exploiting bigotry to get himself reelected!

Don’t blame me! It wasn’t my incompetence! It was those crazy Muslims! You know those Muslims–they’re crazy! It wasn’t me! It was the Crazy. Ass. Muslims. They can’t handle a stupid YouTube video!

I’m Barack Obama and I approved this message.

He should be ashamed of himself, and the people on the left, who are usually obsessed with bigotry and racism, who are letting Obama get away with his disgusting exploitation of bigotry against Muslims are pathetic.

isn’t this really a Willie Sutton story? of course audits of taxPAYERS will disproportionately target the right and libertarians. why target democrats? you’d only have a 10% chance of getting a taxpayer and if you did they’d probably be a fellow government employee anyway or someone with connections you don’t want to fuck with.

“I haven’t seen anyone on the left chastise Obama yet for exploiting bigotry to get himself reelected!”

This is just as bad as…it’s actually worse! …than the feminist groups who refused to condemn Bill Clinton for his exploitation of women. Because Clinton treating women like toilet paper generally won’t encourage future violence against women generally, but painting Muslims as if they were somehow incompatible with free speech and a threat to western society? That can and will have all sorts of terrible results.

Is it really necessary for someone to make the case against exploiting bigotry to the left, so they’ll understand why it’s wrong?

Seriously! As the revelations about Obama’s behavior have come out, why hasn’t the left chastised Obama for his exploitation of bigotry against Muslims? Are they a bunch of bigots? Is engaging in bigotry just okay when Obama does it?

big?ot noun \?bi-g?t\ Definition of BIGOT : a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices; especially : one who regards or treats the members of a group (as a racial or ethnic group) with hatred and intolerance.

You don’t like a group of 1 billion people – and you have no rational reason to do so as you have not met them, talked with them or know anything about them other than their identification with a faith.

You don’t need to like them or anyone else for that matter. What would make you a bigot is if you approved of your favorite politician stirring up exaggerated fears of the “Muslim threat” to justify bombing innocent children and militarily intervening all over the world. Not to mention using the same fears to inflict such foul agencies as the TSA on U.S. citizens.

not to mention the haughty attitudes of every pissant assistant to the whatever.

This type of behavior made me want to slap people. With a 2×4.

Seriously, every single person in DC is “somebody” just because they’re the assistant to the mailroom clerk at the capitol or whoever. All you had to do is got into any random bar in the DC area and listen in to people’s self important tripe.

The sad thing is, all the other self important people are terrifically impressed by these tenuous connections. I was told by several people that I should name drop my boss more often because he was a powerful person. Shit, I fixed his computers, not advised him on policy and direction. His name and $5 will get me a coffee.

Barack Obama’s “intelligence” is a similar phenomenon to George W. Bush’s “stupidity”. For many of those touting either (and usually both), the empirical justification for the proposition is beside the point. It’s cultural dogma. For a sizable proportion of believers, the intellectual superiority of cosmopolitan progressives is an article of faith.

In some ways Obama is the most amazing case of all, because he is blatant about his corruption, like “in your faces, mother-fuckers.” Others at least feign shame at the mention of corruption.

Unfortunately they all seem to get away with it, Clinton, Bush, Obama, LBJ, et al. Nixon was disgraced but not jailed and as far as I know he collected his fat pension and enjoyed Secret Service lackeys the rest of his life.

Government is so big that even the president and the attorney general claim they have no idea what their departments are doing.

It’s amazing that these people claim to have no idea what’s going on, yet the public expects them to lead us all, take care of us, and solve every important problem. You have to ignore what these people do and disbelieve what they tell you (outside of a campaign ad) to embrace that.

“These superficial scandals are nothing compared to the things we will never learn — i.e., the way the CIA conducts its business overseas.”

To claim that the CIA is capable of keeping anything secret is absurd. We find out how it conducts its business regularly, from serious allegations like Majestic 12 to silly bullish*t like sending poisoned cigars to Castro. We find out LATER, granted, but we find out.

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